Black Hair looking stuff

[Jsfoster]

I have black hair looking stuff growing on my decor and a lil on my gravel. There isn't a lot but want to before it gets out of control. I have a 50 gal tropical tank.I would be a great help to know what it is and how to get rid of it. Thanks.

[plantedlab]

Do you have live plants? if so

American Flag fish will eat black hair algae.
and or
Hydrogen peroxide will kill hair algae on contact. I have used a syringe to spot treat.


If you don't have any live plants, you should reduce the light levels and reduce the nutrients available for the algae, otherwise the nitrates it is consuming will build up in your tank faster. Do more water changes, reduce the lighting, cut back on feed.

[Jsfoster]

Thanks for the advice. I heard Flourish excel helps. I will try reducing lighting n feeding and hope to find the flag fish.

[PUNISHER VETTE]

you're doomed.....


Okay here's what you can hopefully do to try and stop the BBA.

1. take out EVERYTHING you can possibly take out, wood, plants, decor... Give it a nice bleach and peroxide bath. Leave it out as long as you can to help kill off the BBA. I left mine out for a day and that wasn't enough to kill the stuff completely.

2. Dose with excel. Stuff's said to help reduce the BBA.

3. If you still have some BBA in the tank that is attached to something that cannot be taken out spot treat with peroxide. Make sure the filter and everything is shut off to allow for the best possible application.

4. pray

[plantedlab]

Wow, punisher you make it sound like a terminal disease. It can be controlled with some careful management.

I haven't heard of flourish as a treatment. Isn't that a fertilizer? I would think that unless you have plants to use up the nutrients, you would just be exchanging black algae for green algae.

[PUNISHER VETTE]

Wow, punisher you make it sound like a terminal disease. It can be controlled with some careful management.

I haven't heard of flourish as a treatment. Isn't that a fertilizer? I would think that unless you have plants to use up the nutrients, you would just be exchanging black algae for green algae.


BBA is the worst algae there is....

Excel isn't exactly a fertilizer. It provides carbon for plants but within 24hours it dissipates out of the tank so there isn't a pile up of excess nutrients. So what isn't used up goes away pretty quickly.

[plantedlab]

hmm... interesting. but personally I'm sticking with the compost and keeping the chemicals out of my tanks.

And I don't doubt that BBA is the worst, but flag fish do eat it, and h2o2 does kill it without killing fish.

[plantedlab]

Ok so I'm a stinking liar. Since h2o2, sodium chloride, and h20 are all chemicals, I guess I do use them(blush)

[PUNISHER VETTE]

peroxide does kill fish..... it just takes a certain amount

While excel on the other hand is just a carbon source, not really a bad chemical so i would consider it a little safer.

And i know i'm not the only one but i don't like the idea of adding a fish to solve algae when there are other fish i would rather have in my tank. and even more so for me since i don't even keep fish in my tanks anymore...

[Wild Turkey]

I strongly suggest Dave66's algae primer, priceless read.
Excel is usually the first thing to try, but you have to stay on a dosage routine or the algae will just come back, followed by co2 if that doesnt work, while spot treating with h202.

[plantedlab]

Wow, no fish?! What do you keep? And I guess I'll have to take a closer look at excel.

[Wild Turkey]

(blush) I also dont keep any fish anymore, plenty of shrimp though

There are a lot of aquatic things to keep besides fish

[nooodles]

Got this furry stuff on my driftwood and filter intake.. and plants

SO i'll soak my driftwood in some, and my filter parts in some h2o2, but what about the live plants? How much h2o2 can i add to my 29g tank to kill the algae but not the fish?